MAG Anyone heard of girls competing against boys?

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Men's Artistic Gymnastics

Peachy88

Proud Parent
My daughter has been training with both the girls and boys team at our gym because she likes all the events and enjoys being at the gym as much as possible. Anyone heard of any girls competing level 4 or 5 boys? She is six and knows all the routines already.
 
Yes, there is a girl on one of the boys teams we occasionally compete against.

Are you sure it is a girl? At the younger ages it can be hard to tell. We have been against some tea where I was almost sure a kid was a girl, but as they grew up I realized that I was wrong.
 
It is absolutely not allowed here. Looked into it at one stage, just in case we end up with the question.
 
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I haven't seen it here. I think it would be tough to train both sides past L4. Level 4 for boys is not very difficult, with simple skills on most events. Most of the little guys stink on mushroom and have trouble getting even one circle completed. But when you get to L5, things ramp up. It takes a lot of work to develop good mushroom circles, and ring swings become increasingly about solid technique with pressure on the rings and turnout. Vault and floor are fairly transferable for a while, but remember that the girls' bars and the boys' high bar are different.

I think if my daughter trained pbars for six months or so, she could be fairly decent on that event. She's watched a lot of pbars obviously and the girls sometimes work strength on them. At a gym sleepover this summer, just for the heck of it, one of the coaches who coaches both boys and girls got her to do a spotted moy in about a half hour. But she can only do two mushroom circles. None of her teammates who've tried have made even half of one.
 
Yes, we had a girl who competed against boys in Level 4 and 5 (not on our team) . She wore the boys uniform and did the same routines. Her hair was in a very short bun thing (like several of the boys as well). Thought she was a boy until the announced awards, and her name was something unambiguously female like Isabelle. Didn't see her after Level 5.

I think eventually, the girls would have trouble with the strength events like rings and pommel, although their floor and vault skills seem to be the same as the boys. I can't imagine the boys being able to do beam. In Level 5, the boys had to learn some sort of kick/twist/land in an arabesque move. and none of them could do it well for a while. I asked my son why it was so hard and he said "You try it" and I could do it right away. I think PBars, the girls would be fine on,
 
Are you sure it is a girl? At the younger ages it can be hard to tell. We have been against some tea where I was almost sure a kid was a girl, but as they grew up I realized that I was wrong.

Yes, she has a very clearly girl name and I have sat near enough her teams’ parents to hear pronouns. Though I suppose there is a chance she is transgender (born boy). She was either level 4 or 5, can’t recall now because I had boys on both levels.
 
Yes, we had a girl who competed against boys in Level 4 and 5 (not on our team) . She wore the boys uniform and did the same routines. Her hair was in a very short bun thing (like several of the boys as well). Thought she was a boy until the announced awards, and her name was something unambiguously female like Isabelle. Didn't see her after Level 5.

I think eventually, the girls would have trouble with the strength events like rings and pommel, although their floor and vault skills seem to be the same as the boys. I can't imagine the boys being able to do beam. In Level 5, the boys had to learn some sort of kick/twist/land in an arabesque move. and none of them could do it well for a while. I asked my son why it was so hard and he said "You try it" and I could do it right away. I think PBars, the girls would be fine on,

My son has quite a good beam routine ;) ALmost has his back tuck! HE also does some quite good uneven bar skills.
 
The boys at our gym tried beam a few times, they are now getting the hang of forward rolls. It's quite cute, since the smallest one can't even climb on the beam, he has to be lifted up (he's 5, oldest is 10)
 
I've seen both, but unfortunately only briefly (as in, I don't think the boy I saw in WAG or the girl in MAG stuck it out past one season). The boy in WAG wore a men's uniform and the girl in MAG wore a women's uniform.

I think it's a fantastic idea. I understand the limitations, physically, but there are limitations to everyone in gymnastics. Most kids find something ridiculously hard and other things come easily.

We had a boy at our gym who wanted to do WAG because he liked that they had music and dance in their floor routines. Our gym didn't have the option of him training with WAG so he quit and joined dance. WAG and MAG are very different; I can understand a boy wanting to do WAG or a girl wanting to do MAG. I'm glad it's becoming an option in some areas.
 
I don't doubt at all that a girl could do fine in boys' gymnastics or vice versa, if the child started working the skills and went through the progressions. It would be hard, however, to do both, since it just takes time to develop the skills on beam, rings, pommels, and pbars. As for upper levels, I could imagine constructing rings/pommel/pbar routines that a reasonably strong girl could do, and floor/beam routines with leap/jump and dance that a reasonably flexible boy could do. You wouldn't see a lot of girls doing crosses on rings. You wouldn't see a lot of boys doing ring or sheep jumps or leaps.

My son has quite a good beam routine ;) ALmost has his back tuck! HE also does some quite good uneven bar skills.

Don't tell anyone because it will provoke rage, but my guy can do a half pirouette on the low bar. He did one just for kicks on one of those nights when none of the L8 girls were around. I think a lot of boys could get decent beam acros. The problems would be the full turn and the leap/jump requirement, lol. Full turns are WAY harder than they look.

I hope NAIGC's initiative takes off. It's really an interesting idea for a competition.



 
I would actually enjoy seeing the boys incorporate more of the dance/flexibility moves into floor. I think it would showcase more skills than strength and tumbling. I know the boys practice their tumbling on lines to keep them straight, so maybe that would translate to beam.
I’m always surprised at how good the boy gymnasts are at dance, my son enjoys doing stuff like a standing back flip into the splits at his elementary dances. He really enjoys that the girls seem to love it.
Maybe acro will start to take off for boys, I know a few gyms around here are starting to offer it.
 
I can't imagine the boys being able to do beam.
The season before last, there was a boy competing Xcel Gold that we competed against at our Regional meet. He tied for 8th on Beam out of 20 in the age group (0.7 behind 1st place). He was 3rd AA, 0.275 behind 1st place. (1st on vault, tied for 5th on bars, and tied for 2nd on floor).
This year at Y Nationals, there was a boy competing Xcel Silver, one competing Xcel Gold, one competing Level 3, and one competing Level 4. Two were from Pennsylvania (different teams), one from New Hampshire, and one from Ohio. I cant easily figure out how they placed compared to the girls because they were listed as their own sessions on MSO.
 
We have a Rec competition program in our state and it’s a combo of men’s and women’s events.
Floor
vault
Bars (I think maybe UB and H bar are separate)
P-bars
Rings
Beam

You can compete all apparatus or just a selection. Most kids do all
 
I know there’s at least one boy on a local high school’s girls’ team (they have held meets at our gym), but I don’t think we’ve run into any girls doing MAG.
 
I don't like it. I know, blast me, I don't care. You know how a girl splits the beam and gets right back up? I don't see a guy recovering very quickly from that. Guys can dance, so that might be interesting on floor, but I just don't like it. It's ok for some things to be exclusive to gender--yes, even in today's odd society that is trying to blend two genders into one.
 

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